


In a Dangerous Time

by DarknessAroundUs



Series: The Bruce Trilogy [3]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Detective Betty Cooper, F/M, Grimm Betty Cooper, Southside Serpent Jughead Jones, Supernatural Elements, Werewolf Jughead Jones, grimm inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-09 22:27:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17413709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarknessAroundUs/pseuds/DarknessAroundUs
Summary: Fangs wakes on the first of May to an SOS call from FP. He gets on his bike and drives over to Betty and Jughead’s as fast as he can. It is still dark out. The air is cool. He smells the smoke, before he sees the column of it, rising into the sky.OrA secret relationship is no longer a secret.A supernatural AU.





	1. To Black

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KittiLee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittiLee/gifts).



> To the wonderful KittieLee! You make the internet a better place.
> 
> The other two stories in the Bruce Trilogy can be read in any order, but this one has to be read last. I don’t think it would make any sense if it wasn’t. 
> 
> This takes place approximately four years after To Lovers.
> 
> I'm sorry but i'm really playing with the Grimm mythology now. Oops.

_These fragile bodies of touch and taste_  
This vibrant skin, this hair like lace  
Spirits open to the thrust of grace  
Never a breath you can afford to waste  
When you're lovers in a dangerous time 

Bruce Cockburn, Lovers In A Dangerous Time

**One**

Every time that Jughead goes out of town for a run with the Serpents, FP sets an alarm clock for 2:30 AM. He read somewhere that most of the terrible things that happen at night, happen between 3 and 4 in the morning. It has something to do with people being so tired at that hour, they are more likely to make stupid mistakes, more likely to be violent.

The run Jughead is going on this time is just to Seattle. Jughead hasn’t even left yet. He won’t for a few hours. Still FP’s got to go to sleep early because at 2:30 AM, he will throw his leathers on over his pajamas, shove his bare feet into combat boots, and drive across town to Betty’s house. Even after all these years he’s not used to thinking of it as Jughead’s place. 

If all goes as planned he will stay outside the house for an hour, keeping watch, before turning around and driving home to bed. Betty doesn’t know that he does this. If she knew, she would insist that he didn’t do it. Jughead doesn’t know either, because if he did, he would tell Betty. He always tells Betty everything.

FP knows that in all likelihood that Betty will be safe. It feels a little strange to sit guard outside of the house of someone who is far stronger than himself. But Blutbad’s have a nose for danger. They can sense it in a way Grimms never can. When Jughead is away Betty is vulnerable in a way she is not, when he is there. 

FP can’t do much for his de facto daughter in law, but he can do this, so he does. He sets the alarm on his phone, turns on his white noise machine, and goes to sleep. 

 

**Two**

Betty makes four sandwiches for the road. Generally Jughead does the cooking in their house, but when he has to make runs for the Serpents, she likes to send him with something she made him, something to remind him how much she loves him. 

He teases her for this. He points out that he’s always gone for less than twenty-four hours, and that it is not even dangerous, at least not compared to her job. But still Betty likes to make the sandwiches and tuck in a handwritten note for his break in Seattle.

Jughead comes down the stairs humming the soundtrack to Cinema Paradiso, the movie they just finished watching. 

“I don’t want to go, Betts.” He says dropping a kiss on the back of her neck, right at the base. 

“I am aware.” 

“Wolf.” Jughead jokes. It’s a long standing one between them yet still Betty smiles. 

“You don’t have to go.” Betty says. FP has made it clear that even if Jughead never does a run again, he will be a part of The Serpents as long as he wants to be. 

“I know, but I like contributing to the pack, even nominally. It’s a need I have.”

“You or the wolf?” Betty says raising one eyebrow.

“The wolf. You’re never going to domesticate me completely Betts.” Jughead winks at her. 

“I wouldn’t want that, Jug. I love all of you in equal measure.”

He kisses her then, full of lips and then teeth. His teeth pulling at her bottom lip, and then at her tongue, not trapping anything, but not entirely gentle either. She sighs when they pull apart. Both their faces a little flushed. 

During the kiss he had pressed her back against the kitchen counter and now she steps away from it. She glances behind her at the sandwiches already to go in an old cloth bag from Powell's.

“I don’t even know what I would be without you.” Jughead says softly. Sometimes Betty can’t help but imagine his life without her in it. A nice Blutbad wife, some children, but even in these fantasies she spins for him in the privacy of her own head, he’s bored, lonely.

She gets it. She can’t imagine being with anyone else but him. She’d rather be alone, or not be at all. 

“I feel the same way.” She says. She knows he has to go soon, but leaving half an hour later won’t really change things, so when he kisses her again she smiles into the press of his lips. 

A minute later he pick her up and carries her upstairs, cradling her in his arms, as if she was someone dainty, not a warrior heavy with muscle. 

**Three**

It is 2:50 in the morning when they park the car. But it takes them time to get their act together. It is 3:00 when they exit the car.

Ryan Carter has the bomb in his hand. Peter Thomas has the spray paint. Luke Clarke has the Sharpee. 

They’ve been planning this for weeks. They had been waiting till the Blutbad left town. Otherwise he would smell them there, alert the Grimm before they brought her to justice. So as much as they wanted to take him out too, they would have to settle for her alone. 

Ryan had planted the bomb on the porch and was running for the car. Luke was behind the wheel. Peter was counting down the time till the bomb went off. 

They were three blocks away when a man on a motorcycle passed them, heading in the direction they had just come from. They were four blocks away when they heard the explosion. Ryan and Peter looked back. Luke kept driving. 

**Four**

Fangs had never been a big fan of Betty. He knows she’s helped the Serpents over the years, but he hates the fact that FP’s son is her boyfriend/life partner/whatever the hell they’re calling it these days.

Grimms and Wesen shouldn’t mix. That isn’t even taking into consideration that Betty’s dad was Hal Fucking Cooper. The Grimm responsible for massacring over a hundred Wesen in Portland for no good reason. 

Sure, her mother was the one who took him out in the end, but still. How far could the apple have fallen from the tree? 

Even though every time she sees him she’s polite, asks about his nephews, he’s always stiff with her. Even though she’s the fairest Grimm that’s ever been in charge of Portland, he’s always looking for some fault, small or large, in her actions.

But when Fangs wakes on the first of May to an SOS call from FP he gets on his bike and drives over to Betty and Jughead’s as fast as he can. It’s still dark out. The air is cool. He smells the smoke, before he sees the column of it, rising into the sky. He swears he can hear his own heart pound over the thrum of the motorbike. 

“What the fuck?” Fangs says to no one but himself. He parks a block from the house and sprints the rest of the way. 

There is no house. The cozy cottage where Jughead has lived for the last eight years, is gone, as is most of the lawn, anything more than the hint of a back patio. 

There is no sign of bodies, no sign of FP, till Fangs catches his scent and runs towards it. The cottage backs on to the woods and when Fangs ventures into the woods, he doesn’t have to go far, till he finds FP, kneeling over a body. Once he’s closer he sees a curl of Betty’s distinctive blond hair.

“Is she dead?” 

FP shakes his head. “I can’t move her though. She’s too injured. The ambulance is on it’s way. I need you to go out to the road and lead them here.”

“Where’s Jug?” Fangs asks. He’s never been the closest to Jughead either, between his father being their boss, and Jughead dating a Grimm it just seemed easier to keep his distance. Still, he wants him to be alive. He wants everyone to live.

“He’s on his way back from Seattle.” FP says. Only then does Fangs realize FP is crying. 

When the ambulance arrives Fangs realizes that he is also crying. He may not like Betty, although he’s starting to think maybe he likes her more than he’s allowed himself to think he does. 

In any case whoever did this to her has to pay. She’s one of their own, more or less. 

Within an hour of Betty arriving at the hospital, the whole damn waiting room is full of cops and Serpents. It’s a room brimming with awkward tension. A tall red headed man is crying in the corner and FP goes over to comfort him. 

After a few minutes pass, FP returns to the clump of Serpents and asks them to go home. They all refuse. Jughead is still on his way here, andit seems wrong to leave her. It’s not like the cops could protect her, if the wrong Wesen showed up. 

There is no way a bomb like that was set by accident. Sure, there’s a small chance that it was set for Betty the cop, but it is much more likely that it was set for Betty the Grimm. 

The red haired man is no longer crying. His whole face is red with anger. He pulls FP aside and shows FP something. FP says fuck so loudly, everyone in the waiting room turns to look at him. 

“Who is he?” Fangs asks Toni, FP’s second in command.

“Detective Archie Andrews, Betty’s Partner, Jughead’s friend.” Her lips pressed together. “He knows about Wesen. About us.”

FP returns to the Serpents and shows them the photo, Archie showed him on his phone. It is of Betty’s mailbox, on the side in black sharpie are the words _Die Grimm_. And then FP swipes the screen and a new photo shows, it’s the sidewalk in front of where the cottage once stood. In red spray paint it says _Go to Hell Wesen Fucker_.

Everyone swears. There is nothing ambiguous about this act of violence. After that Fangs really can’t imagine leaving, even as the contingent of cops grows. 

Fangs goes out once an hour to smoke across the street from the hospital, but otherwise he is slumped on an uncomfortable waiting room chair, restlessly tapping at his phone. 

The nurse keeps coming out to try to talk to Betty’s next of kin, but officially there’s no one. She refuses to tell either Archie or FP anything, even after Archie loudly pulls the cop card. That in and of itself seems like bad news. 

Also it puts Betty’s situation into new light. Her parents have been dead for decades. As far as Fangs knows, she doesn’t have a next of kin. 

Half the waiting room is there for Betty, and everyone who isn’t gives them a wide berth. Most of the cops seem genuinely puzzled by the presence of the Serpents, by the idea that they are here for Betty. 

Fangs overhears Archie as he tries to explain the situation. At one point Fangs hears a uniformed cop repeat the phrase “But Betty doesn’t have a boyfriend” three times. Of course most people in Betty’s life would be in the dark about Jughead. The fact that they pulled that off for nine years, is in and of itself impressive. 

A beautiful Latina enters, in high heels and a tight dress. She’s full on running in spite of the outfit, and Fangs would be tempted to laugh at the picture as if it wasn’t immediately clear that this was Veronica Fucking Lodge. Of course the other Portland Grimm, would show up. 

Veronica had a reputation of being less than sympathetic towards Wesen and when she spots the Serpents, her facial expression transforms into a scowl, but just for a second, then she turns towards Archie who wraps her in a hug. 

They talk for a few minutes and Archie kisses her twice, but it’s clear that whatever he’s telling her has not made her happy “But I can’t go.” Fangs hears her say. 

But Archie is convincing. She leaves less than five minutes later and it’s definitely for the best, all the Serpents were on edge when she was there. 

Jughead runs through the door fifteen minutes later, a panicked look on his face, and his helmet in his hands. FP tries to give him a hug, but Jughead walks through it. Archie follows him to the intake desk. 

The receptionist says she’ll call the nurse. Fangs is wondering how this will go. After all they seem to be sticking to a fairly strict family only policy here. 

The nurse comes out and loudly asks Jughead if he’s family.

“I’m her husband.” He says.

“I need proof.” The nurse says loudly, looking him over dismissively. Fangs feels his hand itch to grow claws. 

“Sure.” Jughead says. “I carry my wedding license in case of emergencies.” Fangs laughs at what he assumes is a sarcastic joke, but Jughead actually pulls one out of his wallet. 

The nurse scrutinizes it, then shakes her head. “You have to come with me.”

**Five**

Jughead wakes and falls asleep and wakes again. Everything blurs together. Time passes in an entirely different way. Days veer into each other, and sometimes Jughead has no idea if it is day or night. 

He remembers getting a call from his dad just twenty miles from Seattle. He remembers turning the bike around and driving back. He’s surprised he didn’t die on that ride. His focus was not on the road in front of him or the cars behind him. He had no concept of speed.

Everything felt like a rush. Even the initial interaction with that awful nurse, with that overworked doctor. Each of the doctors he’s interacted with have been confused by the situation. The first actually said the sentence “She should be dead”. The second stressed that if she woke she would never walk again. 

By the time he talks to doctor fifteen, Betty’s spine has healed entirely, a medical mystery the doctor will never solve. Jughead is just forever grateful for Betty’s Grim-ness, her ability to heal herself beyond what any hospital could provide for her. 

Now Betty is on doctor seventeen and she still hasn’t woken up yet, and they don’t know exactly why. Normally Veronica would ask the Grimm council about this. They have records of various situations. They might know what to do or the name of a mystical healer to call. 

But Veronica can’t talk to the council without them finding out about Jughead. His name is on all the paperwork. The hospital photocopied his marriage license and put it into the file. The marriage license they got five years ago in Canada in case something like this ever came up. Jughead has treasured this piece of paper for years. He carries it with him everywhere as a reminder and a precaution. It allowed him to finally take advantage of all the spousal benefits the PPD provides. 

Veronica tells Jughead it has only been three days since the explosion. There is still plenty of time for Betty to wake up. 

Jughead’s having a hard time keeping track of time. But he trusts Veronica, he has to. She’s really pulled through for him. FP’s been a guilty mess, Archie has been all official cop about it, but Veronica’s been by his side. She’s been for the first time in his life, a friend. 

Thankfully the waiting room of the hospital has emptied out of both Serpents and Police. Although both groups have left representatives standing guard outside. 

Jughead has created designated visiting times for the two groups. Police are welcome to visit in the morning between 11 and 12 and Serpents are allowed to come in the afternoon between 4 and 5. 

Right now it’s 3:30 and Jughead is expecting no one, when there is a knock at the door.

“Jughead. Can I come in?” Veronica asks from the hall.

“Of course.” He says as she opens the door. “Any updates?” He can tell by the look on her face that she’s upset. Her lips are pressed together. She looks so different when she doesn’t wear makeup. 

“Yes. Archie found the guys who bombed the house.”

Jughead feels the air lurch out of his body, the desire for vengeance lunge in. “Who? How?”

“You know your neighbor’s across the street, the McCormacks?” 

Jughead does know them, but just barely. He waves to them from time to time. They are an older couple. 

“Someone kept stealing their packages last Christmas so they installed a video camera. It caught three guys at your house on Wednesday night. One was in charge of the bomb, the other two seemed to have focused on the graffiti.”

“Fuck. And Archie was able to identify these guys?” Jughead knows Archie has been working on this case, but he hasn’t really had time or energy to think about that investigation. His focus has been on Betty.

“He was. The men who drew the graffiti were Peter Thomas and Luke Clarke. The man who planted the bomb is named Ryan Carter and he’s a Dämonfeuer, I had a run in with him about a month ago.”

“Shit.”

“I’ve never wished I had killed anyone so badly.” Veronica says. Jughead notices that her hand is trembling.

“You couldn’t have known.” Jughead reassures her. 

“I wish I figured it earlier though.” Veronica says.

“Why?” Jughead asks, he’s already trying to figure out how exactly he’s going to kill these men. He know Veronica will help, or the Serpents, but he doesn’t want to leave Betty here alone. The idea of her waking up when he is gone is too terrifying to bare.

“Archie arrested them.” Now Jughead understands the fire he sees in Veronica’s eyes.

“He did what?”

“He’s not even apologizing! He said this was the right thing to do!” Veronica says, stomping her high heeled feet.

“Fucking idiot.” Jughead says. He’s not generally a vengeful guy, but this is Betty’s life they’re talking about. The idea that Archie would choose law enforcement over his partner (both of them really, considering how angry Veronica is) seems ludicrous to Jughead.

“I know. They are being taken to a holding cell right now. He didn’t say anything to us earlier because he didn’t trust us not to interfere.” Veronica is pacing now. It is clearly true that Archie couldn’t have trusted either of them in this particular situation, but still. Archie should know better than to think these particular Wesen belonged in jail.

Veronica takes a deep breath “The worst part is he keeps insisting that this would be what Betty wanted.” 

**Six**

Veronica hangs up on Archie. In all their years together he had never heard her so furious. She swore in at least three, possibly for languages. It was good he wasn’t in the patrol car with the perpetrators, otherwise they would have overheard that. Instead they were one car behind him. 

He was alone in his patrol car, a new experience although one he would have to get used to at least for a little but. When (he didn’t like to think of it as an if) Betty woke up she might not be able to return to work, or want to. She was a target in Portland now, it was probably not safe for her to stay here. Though Archie tried not to think about that. 

He pulled his patrol car to a stop at the intersection, the patrol car behind him stopped too. Archie looked into the rear-view mirror and saw the cop, driving the car behind him nod in acknowledgement. Archie could see the perpetrators in the back seat. 

Just seeing them sitting there made him angry. Then he noticed through the rear window, behind the perpetrators, the front of a car, driving at speeds rarely seen even on the highway

Before Archie can say anything, or react in anyway, the accelerating car smashes through the patrol car behind Archie, and then that patrol car, or what was left of it, smashes into Archies. 

Archies body hurls forward against the steering wheel.


	2. On the Edge of Everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so grateful for all the thoughtful/funny/wonderful comments this series has received. Posting this last chapter is a little bittersweet for me.

**One**

They have to leave Portland. Even though Betty is still unconscious. Even though she may never wake up, they have to get out. 

Within an hour of the patrol car disaster that leaves everyone involved dead but Archie, Veronica’s house is blown up (without her in it) and the Whyte Wyrm is destroyed (similarly empty). They post extra guards at the hospital, at Sunnyside. Nothing happens. 

Archie heals in his hospital room. Jughead visits him twice daily. His room is three floors away from Betty’s. Archie will walk again someday but it will be a while. 

Betty’s Captain is the one who ultimately figures out which strings to pull to get Betty transferred to a Seattle hospital. 

Four days after Archie’s hospitalization, Jughead says goodbye to Archie and Veronica. Veronica kisses Betty’s forehead. Archie gives her prone figure a hug. 

Then it’s time for Jughead and Betty to go. A week ago they shared a quiet house together in Portland. A week ago they ate Thai food on their back porch in the chilly spring air. 

Now he’s holding her hand in an ambulance as it heads down the highway. Betty is unconscious, attached to multiple machines. They have an escort of three patrol cars. Jughead thinks that might be both overkill and ineffective but he stays quiet about it. 

Every night Jughead dreams that Betty wakes up. Every night he dreams that they live in the woods. He clings to these dreams as they lift the gurney she is on out of the ambulance and into a Seattle hospital room that looks almost identical to the Portland one. The view is a little better though. 

Jughead sits down in the chair next to Betty’s new bed. He’s never spent so much time indoors before. The wolf in him is anxious to run. To be outside and breath non-recycled air. After a week in Seattle he finally gives in. 

Jughead leaves Betty’s room reluctantly at 2 AM. He’s never gone this long in human form, and he’s weak. 

Within minutes of being in the fresh air, his body forcefully shifts into a wolf. It’s a good thing it’s so late at night. He passes no one in his swift run for a ravine, a park, anything green. 

He runs for hours. He eats three rabbits, and still feels hungry. Finally bramble covered and exhausted, at 6 AM he manages to shift back into his human form. Picking leaves from his hair, he walks towards the hospital. 

He fantasizes that Betty will be sitting up in bed when he gets there, but she is not. Instead the room is exactly how he left it. Although surely a nurse has been by in the meantime. Something inside him crumbles. He finds himself crying into her chest, like a small child, like a fucking cliche. 

She doesn’t wake up. He wonders how much of this he can take. The Wesen who blew up his house, who started all of this are dead, but the Wesen responsible for killing them are not. Maybe, if Betty doesn’t wake up soon, Jughead will return to Portland, take them out in such a way where he might take himself out also. An old fashioned vengeance thriller. 

But then Betty might wake up, and he would have left her alone in a permanent way. Which would be unforgivable. But he could also not live like this forever. A wolf stuck in an uncomfortable hospital chair, waiting. 

He forces himself to find a rhythm. He runs at night. In the day he was the doting, docile husband. He talks to Betty for hours every day. He feels silly at first. But he forces himself past that. 

Even though he spends all day with her, he misses her so fucking much. He misses being her lover and her partner.

The way they used to bring Wesen to justice together and the way they used to read together in bed are missed equally. 

One morning at 5 AM he returns to her hospital room to find it full of nurses, Betty is sitting up in bed, looking impossibly fragile. It has been a month. It was the first of June and his wife was awake. 

Jughead runs to the side of the bed and takes her hand. 

“I love you” she says her voice so quiet he can barely hear it., before he could say anything at all. Only then did he realize how much he had missed hearing those words. How much he had missed saying them.

“I love you more.” He says, ignoring her protests.

**Two**

Archie is driving the car. He is a nervous driver now. Always keeping his eyes on the road. Alert at every stoplight. He no longer allows anyone else to drive. Veronica has forced herself to be OK with that. 

“I can’t believe Betty’s awake.” Archie says for the seventeenth time. Veronica wants to tease him about being repetitive but she can’t bring herself to. He’s still healing. He’s still becoming himself again. It's only been a month.

“I can’t believe we get to see her.” Veronica says. 

“Only because we have to give them their new IDs.” Archie says stiffly. He looks in the rear view mirror again. “I don’t think anyone is following us, but you can never be too careful  
.  
Archie had used his underground contacts to have passports and birth certificates made for Betty and Jughead. He’d never done anything so blatantly illegal before. But it was something that had to happen. With new names, a new country to call home, they could have a fresh start.

Maybe if Archie had been able to find out anything about the dead man who had injured him, and killed the three perpetrators and the cop driving them, Veronica would feel differently. But between that and the destruction of Veronica’s house, it felt like some larger organization was working against them. 

It wasn’t three punks out to kill Betty, but a whole group of people, organized and well funded. Veronica wonders who it was. She can’t even be sure it isn’t the Grimm Council. If they had found out about Betty, they may well want her dead. They might still want to kill her.

Veronica figures the only reason Betty’s even lived this long after the attempt on her life was the fact that whoever wanted her dead, hoped that she would die in the coma. That was clearly not the case now. 

It had been two days since Betty had woken up. It was only a matter of time before whoever was after her made another attempt on her life. 

So here they were in Archie’s old truck hurtling towards Seattle. The hospital there wasn’t ready to discharge Betty still, so she was going to have to make a break for it. 

“What are their new names again?” Veronica asks.

“Ella and John Clark” Archie answers, his eyes still on the road.

“I don’t think I will ever get used to calling them that.” 

“You probably won’t have to.” There is an edge to Archie’s voice. “We can’t even call them during the first year. After that maybe. But we can’t see them for at least two.”

Veronica exhales, tries to force tears back. When Veronica first got her powers, she thought she was going insane, and so did her father. He was the one who had her committed to an asylum. Veronica may well have been there still if not for Betty. 

Betty who not only got her out of that terrible place with it’s nodding nuns and drugs, but who trained Veronica to be the best Grimm she could be. Betty who till very recently took the lead on all things Wesen related in Portland so Veronica could have a semblance of a normal life. 

Veronica was crying now, her head in her hands and she didn’t even care. 

“I’m sorry.” Archie says from the driver's seat. She knows he’s going through this too. He’s known Betty even longer than she has. She has been an important component of Archie’s life for almost two decades now. 

Besides Jughead, who Veronica had loathed for the better part of a decade and was just now coming around about, was Archie’s best friend. The one person Archie had an easy relationship with outside of work and Veronica. 

“I’m sorry for you too.” Veronica says, looking over at her love. Trying to read his emotions. His hands are clenched on the wheel and his jaw is jutted out. He’s nearly unreadable right now. 

“We’ve got to be strong.” Archie says. “We’ve got to remember that this is fucking hard for everyone.” 

Veronica cries a little more after that, but by the time they reach the hospital she has cleaned her face and reapplied her makeup. Archie takes her hand as they cross the street to the hospital, and she is so grateful for it. Even if she loses Betty, she has him at least. She will always be thankful for that. 

As they ride up in the elevator, Veronica also thinks about how lucky they are that Betty woke up. Even if she never sees Betty again she will know that Betty is out there, somewhere in the world, alive. Talking and eating, and just being the toughest, best person Veronica’s ever met.

Archie squeezes her hand as they enter the room. Betty and Jughead are standing in front of the window, looking out at the mountains. Jughead’s hand is on Betty’s shoulder. 

“Hi guys.” Archie says and Betty and Jughead turns toward them, smiles on their faces. Veronica inhales sharply. Betty’s collar bone is very prominent and she is far too skinny and pale. Even wearing a bulky bathrobe over her hospital gown, Veronica can tell how light she is.

“I know, I know! The runway look doesn’t suit me” Betty says with a wink.

“I’ve been sneaking her as many calories as I can.” Jughead says his voice low. “But the doctors said we can’t rush weight gain. Most food is still too rich for her body.”

Veronica nods. Betty shouldn’t even be alive after what happened, so the fact that she’s standing there is a miracle. A miracle Veronica chooses to focus all her energy on. 

Archie takes the passports and certificates out of his bag and hands them to Jughead. “Are you ready to start your new life?”

“As ready as we’ll ever be.”

 

**Three**

“John! John!

Jughead doesn’t think he will ever adjust to answering to the name John. It’s been six months since they’d left Seattle, and still it was work. He forces himself to turn towards the man shouting his new name. 

He’s surprised to see it’s their nearest neighbor, Miles Thornton. Miles is a tall, older farmer, with a gray beard and a lean frame. Jughead has long suspected he is a Blutbad, based on smell and instinct, but the two have never officially shown each other their “true faces”, so it was possible that he was a different kind of Wesen. 

Jughead can smell that Miles’s wife, Lara, is not Wesen, so there is a chance that Miles would be more understanding towards Jughead's situation than other Wesen, but it wasn’t something he was willing to risk unless he had to. 

Betty had always worn sunglasses around Miles, so her secret is probably safe. Her eyes are the only thing that gives her away as a Grimm. 

Jughead is out in the field of their farm, near Salmon Arm, in British Columbia. He doesn’t usually see Miles there. Usually they run into Miles on the road. The Thornton’s farm is between their place and the city. 

Jughead is surrounded by sheep at the moment. He was out there checking on them.

“Hi, Miles. What is going on?” Jughead says with a nod towards the older man. 

“We need to talk.” Miles says, and then he does the one thing Jughead has been dreading for, and hoping for in equal measure. He rolls his head and woges, he shows Jughead his true face. He is indeed a Blutbad.

Jughead wishes he didn’t have to woge back, but if he didn’t, it would be beyond rude. Violating every rule of Wesen etiquette that exists. So he woges. 

He woges every night here. He circles their property at least once a night, to make sure nothing obvious has changed. That Betty and he are still safe, but he tries to stick to the woods, away from any farm animals that might be bothered by him. It’s been a long time since someone who wasn’t Betty has seen him in his wolf form. 

“So we are the same.” Miles says, with an easy smile “Do you already have a pack?”

Technically Jughead will always be a Serpent, but they are a whole country away. He misses having a pack. It was part of his identity for so long. “I did before we moved.” Jughead says.

“You could join mine. I’m in it with a couple guys in town. There aren’t many Blutbad’s around here.” Miles said. Jughead already knows this. 

Wesen, in spite of their animal nature, tend to gather in cities. They don’t stand out as much there, and they can gather in groups easier. They can find their own kind to mate and socialize with. 

“No thanks.” Jughead says. He can’t risk more Wesen finding out about him, he doesn’t want anyone to find out about Betty. “Please don’t tell them about me.”

“Because you’re married to a human?” Miles asks. His expression conveys confusion. He’s hurt by Jughead’s actions. “We don’t judge those sort of things out here. I am married to one too. Out here it is hard to find our own kind.”

Jughead feels terrible. He wishes he could handle this in a better way, but his priority is not to be polite, but to protect Betty. 

Betty has sacrificed a lot to be here. She had not applied to be a cop again. It would have made easier for others to discover her. Instead they both worked the farm. It was an adjustment. But they both felt too grateful to still be alive and together to mind it too much.

“I am sorry. I promised my old pack, I wouldn't join a new one.” Jughead says, hoping the lie seems plausible.

“Ok.” Miles says. Nodding. “If you ever change your mind…”

Jughead nods. Out here it’s trickier to keep what they have a secret. Eventually, if they don’t take to moving every year or two, he’s not going to be able to keep this a secret. But the truth is he doesn’t want to move. 

He loves the farm, he loves the woods. As much as he misses Portland, Archie and all, he’s less pulled between two worlds here. Most of the time he forgets that the outside world has a problem with him, after all they now regularly go days without seeing anyone outside of each other. 

**Four**

Betty wakes up overheated. It’s still dark outside but she has to collect the eggs from the chickens in time for the local food coop to pick them up at six. 

She moves her head slightly and she sees the dark hairy bulk of Jughead beside her. He’s all fur today. The wolf at rest. He never used to do that in the city, but here the chances he’ll get caught are highly unlikely. She kisses the top of his head and he shifts in his sleep, first from one side to the other, and then from wolf to human, waking up with a yawn. 

“I love you.” he says, sleep still clinging to him. 

“Enough to join me on egg retrieval duty?” She says, raising an eyebrow. 

“I wish I was still nocturnal.” Jughead says pushing himself out of bed. With Betty at home, their schedule were more aligned. ”Then this wouldn’t be early but late, and I so prefer late to early.”

“Really?” Betty says, softly sarcastic. Sleepy, grumpy Jug, is not her favorite version but she still understands him. She still loves him.

They pull on clothes and then make their way out to the coops in the dark. Taking the obvious eggs first, than searching to see if they’ve missed any. They have 200 chickens now, and the task is time consuming, but there is something peaceful about it. A routine they’ve built together. 

**Five**

“Here’s your coffee.” Liam says, slamming it down on the desk in front of Archie. The dark liquid (too dark for Archie’s taste) sloshes out.

“Thanks.” Archie says, unable to keep the edge out of his voice. Within a week of becoming his partner Betty was bringing him the right coffee - two creams, one sugar. A year into Liam’s partnership with Archie and Liam was still bringing him this horrible bitter brew. 

Liam is not all bad. He’s a human who doesn’t have a clue what a Wesen is, which is a little refreshing. He occasionally listens to tolerable music, he isn’t corrupt, which is always nice.

But he’s terrible at listening, not that great a detective, and ultimately, not Betty in any way shape or form.

Sometimes Veronica likes to remind him that Betty wasn’t perfect. Betty got mad when she hadn’t eaten enough, and kept too many secrets. But none of that really mattered in the long run.

“Any leads on the murder of that jeweler downtown?” Liam asks. 

Archie had actually solved that mystery with Veronica last night. It was a Balam. They knew where he lived and everything. Archie just hadn’t figured out how to explain A) how the crime was committed and B) how he figured out who did it. 

So Archie shakes his head and goes back to looking at his computer screen in silence, while running all of the possible ways they could ‘solve’ this case, through his head. 

“Archie?”

Archie looks up at Liam, whose now sitting at the desk across from him. “What?” Archie says irritably.

“Are you going to be this irritatingly on edge until Veronica gives birth?” Liam asks. 

Archie shrugs. “We only have five more weeks to go to the due date. So I guess you're going to find out.”

**Six**

Jughead’s in Salmon Arm picking up groceries, when he runs into Miles in the checkout line. Miles looks on edge.

“Can you get coffee with me after?” Miles asks Jughead.

“I’m really busy. I’ve got to get back to Betty.” Jughead says as he inserts his credit card into the machine (one of the little adjustments he had to make when moving to Canada, no more swiping).

“This is about her.” Miles says, in a voice that suggests this isn’t a negotiation. 

“OK.” Jughead says trying to force himself to stay calm. Betty’s alone on the farm today. She’d wanted to come in with him, but one of the sheep was due to give birth soon. She tried to be there when that happened. 

He hoped Betty would be ok out there on her own for another hour. No matter how strong she was, and there was no arguing that she was strong, the right person could always take her out, or he reminded himself, the wrong bomb. 

Still he packed his reusable bags full of groceries into the truck and then walked over with Miles to the nearby coffee shop, an establishment with terrible drip coffee but decent espresso. Miles gets his coffee to go, and Jughead follows his lead. 

They start walking towards the park and Jughead feels uneasy. This is definitely not a casual conversation between neighbors. 

Finally when they are in the park, which is pretty empty this early in the morning, Miles says “I saw Betty without her sunglasses. I drove by the farm when she was mucking out the pig pen. I saw her but she didn’t see me.”

Jughead’s thoughts scatter into the wind. He thinks about leaving. How they should just pack up and go. Though they’d lose a lot of money on the farm, it might be the only step forward. He thinks also of Betty right now, he worries again if she’s safe there, alone. 

“Ok.” Jughead says with an exhale.

“What the hell were you thinking marrying a Grimm?” Miles says.

“It’s not something I rushed into. If that’s what your getting at.” Jughead says, his gaze narrowing. “We were together for five years before marriage.” He’s trying to difflect. To humanize the situation. He knows Miles could care less how long they dated. 

Miles looks surprised. “No, I just mean, what were you thinking dating one at all? Nevermind marrying one.” There is an expression of disgust on his face now.

“You’ve met Betty. She’s kind, she’s funny, she’s smart, she’s tough, and well read. Why wouldn’t I date her.”

“Because she’s a Grimm.” Miles says, spitting out the word Grimm as if it is a curse. “I get what it is to fall for someone controversial. My parents disowned me when I married a human, and Lara is the best thing to ever happen to me.”

Jughead decides that now is not the time or the place to get in a discussion about why it is not a good idea to call wives things. In any context. 

“Look, your parents might have disowned you over your love life, and I’m sorry for that, but my fucking house was blown up because of my relationship. Betty was in a coma for over a month, after surviving that attempt on her life. The motherfuckers who did that to her, wrote slurs all over our mailbox, so we wouldn’t have any doubts about why they did what they did.” Jughead says all this in a low controlled voiced. 

He’s angry, but there is a chance he may never see Miles again after this day. In all likelihood Jughead is going to drive home, pick up Betty, a few essentials, and they are going to drive off into a new life together.

“We moved here after that. We changed our names, Betty abandoned her career, we left our country, all so we could be together.”

Jughead watches as Miles adam’s apple bobs rapidly.

“We chose to live here because it’s remote. Betty is no longer an active Grimm here. We stay out of everything in hopes of having a peaceful life. And still shit like this happens.”

Jughead can’t help himself, he steps one step closer to Miles, so he’s staring directly into the man’s face. “My wife is a good Grimm. The only mistake she ever made was falling in love with me. If you can’t live with that, tell us, and we’ll move. But tell anyone else and your pretty much signing both our death warrants” 

Jughead doesn’t wait for an answer. Instead he walks off in the direction of his car. He calls Betty on the way home, and when he arrives at the cabin she’s waiting on the front porch. They embrace.

“We’re not going to run yet.” Betty says as Jughead presses his lips to her forehead. “Lara’s a good women. I think there is a chance she can talk some sense into him. Miles went to you for a reason. He could have told his pack, he probably should of, but I think he wanted to talk to you first because he feels an affinity for you.”

“I don’t know, Betts, this is awful big risk to take.” 

“We take risks every day.”

He smiles into the top of her head, forces himself not to give into the urge to pack.

Three days later Lara and Miles come over with homemade apple pie. Lara and Betty disappear into the kitchen together to heat it up and Jughead and Miles sit at the table next to the fireplace.

“I didn’t tell the pack about Betty.” Miles says, not making eye contact.

“Good.”

“Lara told me that I need to trust you. If your fine after all these years, than Betty is fine. She isn’t the monster my parents scared me with before bed.”

“She really isn’t.” Jughead says. They lapse into silence and they can hear their wives chatting away in the kitchen. Jughead can’t catch the exact words, but he knows they’re covering the same territory. “Just if you’re ever going to tell anyone else, tell us first. We will leave, we really will.”

“And keep wandering the earth forever?” 

“Maybe. We weren't supposed to stay here for over a year, but we fell in love with the land, with the life here. If you told me five years ago that I would grow to love farming, I would have laughed. But i’ve grown to love being outside in the dirt.” 

Jughead had gardened in Portland but that was it. The idea of having a pet, like a cat or a dog was just foreign to him, but here the animals they raised had purpose. He loved them for that. Found working with them satisfying.

“I get that.” Miles says. “Most of the kids I grew up with left to try their luck in some city or another, but I never got the appeal of that. I was born sixty-five years ago right around here, and if I die tomorrow on the same stretch of land, I will consider that a successful life.”

After a pause Miles adds “You’re good neighbors. We don’t want you to move.” 

**Seven**

Archie’s acting like a kid anticipating Christmas. He’s bouncing around the Squamish ShareBnB like a toddler. Their actual toddler is asleep upstairs. Elizabeth just turned one, so she barely qualifies as a toddler, as far as Veronica is concerned.

Archie keeps asking if he can go wake up Elizabeth when Betty and Jughead arrive. Veronica keeps telling him no, even when he flutters his eyelashes at her, and says “But this her first chance to meet her namesake.”

Veronica is standing her ground because it took her over an hour to get Elizabeth (or E as they generally call her) to bed in the first place. Besides it’s not like Betty and Jughead will just be here for a few hours. They are going to spend an entire week together, the two families. That’s the plan anyways.

It’s been Three years now since Betty and Jughead left Portland, since they’ve seen them. For the first year they didn’t even talk over the phone just in case. But the Wesen situation in Portland has been stable for a while now. They’ve finally become brave enough to all meet up.

Archie had desperately wanted to meet them at their house, to see their farm, but Veronica and Betty had both been very clear that that couldn’t happen. So instead they were all meeting here, in the mountains.

There was a knock on the door and Archie ran for it, like a puppy. He threw it open to reveal Betty, her hair darker and up in a bun. Jughead’s hair was shorter now, not even long enough to fall down into his eyes. They both looked exhausted and frankly a little dirt covered.

They hug Archie. “Sorry we’re late.” Betty says moving away from Archie and wrapping Veronica in a warm hug. Veronica notices that Betty smells differently. Not bad, but more like the earth.

“What happened? I expected you here before us?” Veronica says.

“This is the first time we’ve been away from the farm, and while we’ve left it in good hands, someone was a little nervous.” Betty jabs Jughead in the side lightly as she winks.

“Our pigs are about to give birth. Any day now.” Jughead says, a look of anticipation on his face. “I just wanted to make sure our neighbor, Miles, knew what to do.”

The name of their neighbor twinges something in Veronica’s memory. “Wait Miles? The Blutbad is taking care of your farm while you are away? I thought you weren’t sure you could trust him.”

“That was a while ago. He’s turned out to be a good neighbor.” Betty says.

“Actually.” Jughead says with a shrug. “It turns out we actually have a lot in common with him and his wife. They’ve become our closest friends.” Archie gets a forlorn look on his face and Jughead quickly adds “Nearby friends. You guys will always be our favorites.”

“We better.” Archie says with a huff.

Suddenly a soft look crosses Jughead’s face. Veronica can see the child in him for a moment. “Congratulations Veronica!” he says quietly, as if testing it out.

Veronica is confused. What could Jughead possibly be congratulating her for? She’s been the head Grimm of Portland for years now, and Betty had already sent a cute card and a hat Jughead had knitted after the birth of Elizabeth.

Jughead’s face changes quickly to bright purple, and then Veronica knows what he’s talking about, and she blushes as well.

“How the fuck did you know?” she whispers. “I only found out this morning. I haven't even told Archie.” 

Thankfully Archie is too busy talking to Betty to pay any attention to them. 

“You have a very distinct scent.” Jughead says with a shrug. “Pregnancy hormones have a very different odor.” 

They don’t talk about it anymore, partially because there is not more to say and partially because Betty and Archie rope them into their conversation about farming. 

**Eight**

It’s midnight. Jughead is splattered with blood. For the first time in years it is the blood of a Wesen. 

A Malin Fatal, a boar like Wesen that had been targeting the farms around theirs for weeks, taking one animal and then another, and killing it. 

Wesen had targeted farm animals around here before. They’d always stayed out of it, even when one took out two of their goats. 

Two days ago the Malin Fatal had moved on to humans. 

If Betty had still been with the police perhaps they would have tried reporting it. But Malin Fatal are vicious, once they taste human blood, they don’t go back. 

Betty is equally splattered. They are still at the Fuller’s farm, three over from their own. They’d been there all week waiting for the Malin Fatal to show itself. 

“Are you ok?” Betty asks. The Malin Fatal is dead on the ground twenty feet from them. It had woged back into its human form, as all Wesen did after death, and it looked like a perfectly normal teenage boy. 

“Yes.” Jughead exhales loudly. He almost wasn’t. He had tried to take on the Malin Fatal on his own. He wanted it to be clear that a Blutbad had killed it. Yet he hadn’t been strong enough, one of it’s tusks had gotten his shoulder pretty badly and Betty had intervened. 

Betty comes closer and uses his phones flashlight to look at his wound. She doesn’t say anything, just rips a strip from the bottom of her shirt and wraps his arm tightly. 

“I’ll patch it up properly when we get back, but we have to dispose of the body first.” 

“Ok.” Jughead says. It’s something they have done before, but not for years. Portland was five years behind them now. It was hard to imagine, but now most days, this was the only life he really remembered living. “I don’t miss this part of our life.”

Betty lets out a long soft laugh. “Me neither.”

**Nine**

Betty’s upstairs reading Farewell my Lovely by Raymond Chandler, a nice moment of quiet during a busy week. Usually farming was quieter during the winter. The exception being the week before Christmas, which seemed to be busy regardless of what one did for a living.

There is a sharp knock on the door, Betty’s surprised by the sound. For one thing, their door is never locked, and all their close friends know this about them. For another, no one but their close friends ever visit. It’s not like they get door to door salesmen or Jehovah's Witnesses way out here.

Still Betty finds herself getting up from her comfortable chair, throwing off the quilt she was snuggling under and walking down the stairs. Jughead is out with the sheep right now, so if anyone is going to open the door, it is her.

Betty flings it open and no one is there, just a silver truck fishtailing out of the snowy driveway. She tries to make out the license plate, but she can’t. It’s too far away and going to fast.

“Woof” the sound is soft and kind of broken, but it forces Betty to look down. There at her feet is a small wolf, ill fed and dirty. Its fur is light in color but matted with mud and twigs. Betty kneels down besides it, and that’s when she realizes it’s not a wolf, but a Blutbad. Even when they woge, Blutbad’s have a human-ness to them, that wolves never do. It is no more than two months old.

A shiver travels the length of Betty’s body. Who would do this to a baby? She doesn’t have time to think about that, or even be angry. She picks up the blutbad, it doesn’t even feel warm in her arms, though it does feel soft. She carries it into the living room, grabs a quilt, wraps the pup-person soundly and then slips on her shoes. Then with all the speed of her body, she runs to the barn.

Jughead’s shoveling manure when she enters from the cold. He looks up, surprised “Betty?” He says.

“Someone left this on the porch.” She can’t believe that in her rush she didn’t even check to see if it was a boy or a girl. Jughead rushes to her side and looks into the quilt in her arm. The wolf wriggles and Betty sees that it is a him, and not a her.

“Oh, Betty.” Jughead says, not with the shock she has felt, or the sadness, but with a sense of joy, of awe.

She realizes then and there that Jughead wants to keep him. Part of Betty wants to protest, the other part of Betty wants to say yes. 

But mostly Betty is practical, and focused not on whether or not they are going to be able to keep this baby, but whether or not it is going to be able to stay alive. It’s not like they can rush it to a hospital. 

“Jug, how do we take care of him?” She asks. 

**Ten**

Jughead doesn’t know much about babies. He’s never spent that much time around them, Blutbad or otherwise. There had never been that many small kids around The Serpents. Some of them had kids, sure, but they left them at home while drinking. 

All Jughead knew was that he always wanted kids. Betty and he had given up on protection a few years after they moved to the farm, but nothing had ever come of it, and after awhile it felt wiser to assume that nothing ever would. Everyone always told them that Grimm and Wesen couldn’t reproduce, they’d just had never been sure that they weren't the first to actually try.

Yet here Jughead was with a Blutbad baby in his arms, feeding the baby goats milk from a bottle they kept around for feeding their own ailing sheep sometimes. 

Miles is sitting next to him on the other comfy chair, and Lara is sitting next to Betty. Betty and he have had the baby for three days now, and the only reason he’s still alive is Miles and Lara. 

Miles and Lara’s own kids are fully grown now but they still remember a lot about babies. Jughead is a little worried it’s all outdated, but it’s not like you can Google how to care for a baby Blutbad. He was so sleep deprived the second day, he actually tried. 

“He’s so precious. Have you come up with a name?” Lara asks. 

Betty and Jughead exchange looks. The survival of the baby is still far from certain. He’s gained weight over the three days they’ve had him, and he’s no longer running a temperature, but he’s still frail. Today is the first day he has managed to sustain human form. 

Miles told them that he was woged to stay alive. That he was stronger in wolf form, so his body was forcing him into that. So the fact that he looked like a human baby today was good news. It was part of the reason they had all let themselves sit down and have a cup of tea instead of rushing around like mad. 

Still they couldn’t be certain that he would live. And even if he did, what would stop the people who had abandoned him here, from returning to claim him?

Even with all these doubts hanging over their heads, Jughead had started to think up names. He knew Betty had too. She hadn’t told him yet, but this morning he had seen her write what he had assumed was a grocery list only to discover it was a list of boy names - Mark, Chandler, Miles, Archie, all those names were on the list. 

It was surprisingly close to the one Jughead had been secretly composing on his phone. Both of them were thankfully Forsythe free. 

Finally Betty spoke “We want to make sure he’ll live first, but we’ve given it some thought.”

“Good. So you will keep him?” Lara asks, although it’s not really a question in either of their minds. Jughead knows that Betty’s a little more reluctant than he is. She’s worried that they will put this child in a dangerous position. 

Jughead doesn’t think there is any more dangerous position you could put a baby besides abandoning them on a porch in midwinter after knocking once. What if they hadn’t been home? That what if will probably haunt him for the rest of his life. 

“Yes.” Betty says, and that simple word, eases Jughead worries. 

“Good. Because we’re too old to raise another one.” Miles says with an exaggerated sigh of relief. 

“Any ideas who abandoned him?” Betty asks. They’d asked Miles to do some digging. He knew all the Blutbad’s around here. 

“No. I think it must be someone from my pack. Someone who knows about Jughead. I told them about him, when he first moved here, before I knew Betty was a Grimm. Even though he told me not to. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. They must have thought that he was their best bet in terms of finding someone to take care of a Blutbad.”

“You both will make such great parents.” Lara says. “We’ve always though so.” She blushes red.

“Yes, but we weren't supposed to tell them that.” Miles says. “We always wondered, why you didn’t have kids.” 

“You definitely weren't supposed to say that.” Lara adds. “Really Miles, you should know better!”

“It’s ok.” Betty says. “When we were in Portland it was too dangerous. We started trying here, but we couldn’t have them. Now we are kind of old to be first time parents, anyways.”

Jughead thinks about that for the first time. They’re both heading into their mid forties. This isn’t when most people become parents for the first time. Certainly not in farming communities. Miles and Lara had their kids in their early twenties. 

“You’ll have to come up with a story for what happened. How you came to be parents.” Miles says with a nod. “We can help you with that.”

“We still need a name though.” Lara says, and Jughead knows her well enough to know that part of why she needs a name is so she can embroider it on a quilt for the baby. 

Later that night, the baby sleeping in a blanket lined box beside their bed, they get into a good natured argument about names. They run the gamut from Archie (“But he named his daughter Elizabeth, Jug! It’s too wierd) to Mark (“I like the name, but I don’t know any Mark’s. Why the hell would we name him Mark, Betty?”) to Miles (“I think it would be confusing. We’d have to call them Miles One, and Miles Two”). 

When they woke up in the morning, still undecided, Betty pulls the baby up into bed and gives him a bottle, and says “Why not Marcus? It means warrior. He’s already one because he made it this far.”

Jughead seals the name with a kiss. First one on Betty’s forehead, than one on Marcus’s tummy, and then finally one on Betty’s lips. 

**Eleven**

“Then the wolf and red riding hood ran away together and lived happily ever after.” Archie says, closing the book and putting it away. Veronica whose just passing by with a load of laundry in her arms, drops it in surprise.

“That’s not how I remember that particular story ending.” Veronica says, entering the room with a huff. Archie is putting both Elizabeth and Anne down for bed as he usually does every night. She usually has to patrol. 

“No, mummy. That’s how it has always ended.” Elizabeth says, very seriously. She’s eight now. She still doesn’t know about what actually goes bump in the dark. Veronica’s not sure she will ever be ready to tell her.

“Yes. It’s a special daddy story.” Anne adds.

“Are there other special daddy stories?” Veronica asks, raising an eyebrow. 

Archie slowly reaches under Elizabeth’s bed and pulls out a whole pile of books. Veronica shuffles through them, opening a few, skimming through the pages. Archie has actually sharpied out the real text and added his own. 

All are variations on the beast and human love story, or rather they are after Archie’s heavy edits. The last book in the pile is the first graphic novel in the Fable series. Veronica knows about this comic only because Archie had been addicted to it during their early days of dating. 

She even read it once. She remembers the basics. Snow white falling in love with the big bad wolf during the course of a murder investigation. Rape, divorce, and fairy tales all mixed up in a blender.

“That’s our favorite.” Both girls shout in unison. 

“Really?” Veronica says, grabbing Archie by the cuff of his shirt and dragging him out of the room.

Once they are safely in their own bedroom, door closed against the protests of the girls, Veronica slams the book into Archie’s chest. “What the fuck were you thinking? This is written for adults.”

“I censored it!” Archie says flipping it open to a page that is all black marker. “I was careful.” 

“Why are you reading them all of this?” Veronica says sharply. It’s not like the girls didn’t know and love Betty, Jughead, and now Marcus. They spent two weeks together every year, and video chatted every week. 

“I don’t want them to be prejudiced.” Archie says indignantly. 

“They don’t even know about Wesen. How could they be?” Veronica says with a shrug. 

“Just because they don’t know now, doesn’t mean they won’t know always. This is preparation for that.”

Veronica understands the subtext to the sentence. Even if the kids don’t become Grimms (it usually happens after their closest blood relation - her - dies), he wants to tell them about the other world. 

They’ve danced about this subject for years but they've never spoken about it so overtly. Veronica wants to be mad at Archie about all this, but she can’t seem to, because she thinks he is probably right. Instead she gives him a hug, and nods a yes, her head pressed against his chest. 

**Twelve**

Betty watches her two wolves, her two loves, run in the field behind the house, play fighting. Lunging and dodging and rolling together. There’s no breeze, but the long grasses are constantly moving as they thrash through them.

She’s on the porch above them today with tea and a book. Sometimes she joins them in their play fights but it changes the dynamic, her speed and strength is so different from theirs. 

Betty takes a sip of Earl Gray. She can’t believe their son is ten now. Some days she’s still not sure how they got so lucky to have a son at all. To have this life full of early mornings and baby animals, and fields full of wheat. 

Jughead comes back up to the porch in human form, gasping for breath. “I am not as young as I used to be.” He says dropping a kiss on to each of Betty’s shoulders. 

Betty’s grown to associate early adulthood with tension and struggle, with secrets and long hours. Now in their mid fifties, everything glows. They’ve made it further than she ever imagined. 

Marcus bounds onto the porch in wolf form, and then suddenly stretches out into human.

“What’s for lunch?” He asks. 

“Did the rabbit you just ate not fill you up?” Jughead asks, smiling. Marcus shakes his head. Betty has grown used to both of their large appetites.

“I made soup earlier. It’s still simmering on the stove” Betty says, as she stands up, and all three of them make their way into the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really did not mean to make Bughead parents in this one, I swear. But then I had this idea of Betty seeing a wolf on the porch, all small and injured, and I couldn’t stop myself from writing it out.
> 
> Oh, and sorry for the delay. This chapter took longer to write because it was so darn long (hopefully not too darn long). 
> 
> I am so grateful for feedback.

**Author's Note:**

> Always grateful for feedback!!
> 
> \- Cait


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